


Prismatic Illusion

by WeaponFrayer



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Fuyuki Fire AU, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, in which Shirou is a dead boi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 19:57:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeaponFrayer/pseuds/WeaponFrayer
Summary: 10 years have passed since the 4th Holy Grail War, and the ripples of a single death casts different shadows and lights across that ever-divergent world. The 5th Holy Grail War is due to begin.





	Prismatic Illusion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stormedge](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Stormedge).



> Hey y'all. Importing this (kinda?) over from FFN. I've been really bad at keeping fics concurrently updated with here and FFN, so I'll try to see how it plays out.
> 
> The entire premise of this fic is inspired by a few things: for one, Stormedge's fic Tainted Ideals over at FFN. One of the classics of FSN fics, Chapter 5 is much of the direct inspiration for me wanting to take a shot at writing this.
> 
> Also, not to give too many spoilers, but Kaleid has inspired some elements in this fic. If you couldn't already tell, Illya is best girl. :D
> 
> I'd like to give forward thanks to some of the regulars on the /r/grandorder Discord, especially from the old #nasuverse-general channel for some of the elements present in this fic. Thanks a lot for helping me with some of the planning here. :)
> 
> And thus, the show must begin.

 

_Fuyuki, 1994_

A hell of a million scorching threads of fire and fury – the result of a single man realizing his 'truth' for the lives of hundreds.

Fuyuki was in flames. From the Civic Center and outwards bound, pulsating like the death throes of olden stars, the inferno ate through everything it could touch.

All that stood in the way of the million curses was purged. Technology and construction, built at man's zenith for the time; plants and trees holding ancestral roots for centuries in the city; mankind itself, with both the young and old simply living life-

-all were equal before the throne of fire, as the entire world that surrounded them tumbled down into conflagration.

First it preyed upon the old and infirm – all that which was not truly 'alive', and all that which was barely 'alive', unable to escape the blazing constraints that they were trapped in.

Then it seeked those who could run – those who could escape and try to find refuge from the fire saw their former lives in blazing ashes, and those who could not found an end in incineration, trapped in the labyrinth of despair.

Then it came for those who could not run-

-leaving no one left to speak.

* * *

_Hot._

A single thought coursed through mind. Nothing else could compare with the pain that ravaged his body.

_Forwards._

Barely staggering. It was still  _hot_. Down the lane of rubble, he willed the last fragments of his body forwards.

_Forwards-_

Stubby legs began to quake. Breathless and without distraction, he wobbled-

-and he  _fell_.

_Forwards..._

He stared at the canvas of stars and smoke above.

A drop of heaven fell. First on his arms, then his face.

Soon, the faintest hint of a smile began to form.

_Rain…?_

A second later, he lost his sense of feeling.

A minute later, and he had passed.

The rain gave his body haven for the last moments of his life.

The boy known as Shirou Aoki was dead.

* * *

The stars had fallen, yet he still looked for a glimmer of hope.

Kiritsugu Emiya – the Magus Killer – scavenged, clawed, dug through the rubble and dust of the fire.

It all came back to him – the confrontation with the illusion of his dead wife, the choice that he made – everything that he had done, hoped to achieve, and put everything that he held dear on the line-

-all of it dissolved into the wind like ashes.

The lives that it had cost to come here-

-all meaningless.

For everything that he had sacrificed to bring utopia to the world, he had brought upon hell instead.

The hell that stood before him.

He looked and looked, chasing for the opportunity to save a single life in the hell that he had bought with blood and seal, hoping to redeem himself.

And in the end, he was denied.

* * *

Just before sunrise, Kiritsugu Emiya collapsed, unconscious.

Not a single soul was saved.


End file.
